


Consequences

by JCapasso



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27932644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: When Audrey comes back from the imploded barn, she is /pissed/ at Nathan. And for very good reason.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Consequences

Audrey was just waking up. She remembered being Lexi. The bar. The void. Making the jump. And now she was Audrey again. At least she thought so. Her memories were still so jumbled up. Nathan. He was here. She remembered Nathan. As Audrey. That meant that Audrey was the real her. “Hi,” she managed to say as he brushed her hair back, hand resting on her cheek. She looked around as she tried to settle the correct memories into the correct places, and the next person she noticed was Duke. Of course, Duke was here too. Then she noticed the guns. A lot of them. Surrounding them. She had no idea what they were doing there. What kind of mess they were in the middle of, and she was still trying to figure it out when Nathan got up, walked over to Jordan, and took the gun from her. She was as confused as ever, but once he came back and pressed it into her hand and pointed it at his chest, she started to get an idea of what was going on. “What are you doing?” she asked carefully, trying to figure out how to play this.

“The troubles haven’t ended,” Nathan told her. “I know what Howard told you. Killing me is the only way now.”

Audrey saw Nathan look over to Duke and the look clearly meant that they’d already had this argument and then Nathan was kissing her. She let the gun fall as she kissed him back hesitantly. She finally got all her memories back in the correct places, including everything that happened when she went in the barn and she was filled a fury towards Nathan like she’d never known. When Nathan grabbed the gun and put it back to his chest as he begged her to kill him, she had never been more tempted in her life, but that wasn’t a line she would cross. Ever. She knew how she had to play this. “I’m not killing anyone. Certainly not someone I’ve never met before. And who is Audrey?” she added the icing on the cake. “My name is Lexi.” She would have to be Lexi for now. 

“Your name is Lexi?!” Nathan asked incredulously.

He couldn’t even see her. He was right there and he couldn’t see who she really was. He couldn’t even see the barely restrained anger that she was forcing back. She shouldn’t have been surprised. It just confirmed what she had long suspected. “Uh, I guess you guys were expecting someone else?” she said as she glanced around, being very careful not to meet Duke’s eyes. Duke would definitely see through her. Hopefully by the time they next saw each other she would be steady enough to keep Audrey deep enough beneath the surface to fool even him.

Jordan came up and pointed her gun right at Nathan. “Shoot him,” she ordered.

“I’m not shooting anyone…who are you people?” she asked, making sure to sound confused.

“Jordan, if she’s not Audrey anymore then her killing Nathan isn’t going to end the troubles,” Duke jumped in, unable to do more than glance at the fake Audrey. Partially because he couldn’t stand looking at her and seeing someone else in her eyes, but mostly just to keep an eye on the gun. “It only works if she loves him.”

Audrey forced herself not to respond to that. Not to point out that while they might have had some potential before, Nathan had blown that to kingdom come when he refused to accept her decision. When he killed an unarmed man. When he killed their son. Thankfully she didn’t get long to dwell on it before all hell broke loose and Duke saved the day again. Just like he always did. He jerked the gun away from Jordan and threw a punch that got the troubled blood on him. As his eyes started to glow, he turned back long enough to yell for Nathan to run. As much as part of her wanted to grab a gun and help Duke, she knew that she couldn’t. It would give her away in a heartbeat. Instead she contented herself with moving to the side, trying to ignore the supercharged Duke throwing people around and giving a distraction for Nathan to get away, and decided to try and figure out who the new girl was. She didn’t seem to be on the side of the guard.

When Audrey heard that commotion that meant that they’d caught Nathan she considered just letting it play out, but decided that she didn’t like who that would make her so she ran off after them, Jennifer right behind her, grabbing a gun off the ground. When Duke failed to talk them down and they were about to shoot Nathan, she fired a shot into the air. “Hey, listen up you lunatics. Move a muscle, lose your heads.” When she noticed a few suspicious looks, particularly from Duke, she started waving the gun around in a way Audrey never would. “I know it doesn’t seem like I know how to use this thing, but I do.”

“What do you want, Lexi?” Vince asked.

“Ideally? A stiff drink. And a reason why y’all are trying to blow away cheekbones here,” she said, trying to put as much Lexi into her mannerisms as possible. She could see that Duke wasn’t completely convinced though. At least he wouldn’t give her up in front of anyone else. When Jordan tried to step forward, Audrey fired a shot at her feet. “I know you’re angry honey, but I’m hoping you’re not stupid too.

Duke knew that someone had to defuse this, so he spoke up. “Scuse me, Lexi? Hi. My name’s Duke,” he said. He wasn’t sure if it was Audrey pretending to be Lexi or not. Maybe the similarities were always there, no matter the personality that she was overwritten with. Like how all of her personalities came to help with the troubles. It didn’t matter at this point though. Even if he was sure that it was Audrey, he would still have to pretend to believe her in front of the guard anyway. “I would actually prefer that they didn’t shoot cheekbones here either,” he explained. “Now uh…I think I can clear this whole thing up if I can just…talk to this gentleman right over here. The uh…the big one.”

The solution they seemed to have reached was acceptable to Audrey. She still wanted to help people with the troubles, and unfortunately that meant working with Nathan either way. As long as he thought she was Lexi and wanted nothing to do with her outside of work, this was manageable. Just as she’d feared though, Duke saw right through her and confronted her about that evening. She went back to her apartment, hoping that he would offer it to her again…assuming it was still available of course...so she could avoid being stuck at the bed and breakfast. She hadn’t been there long before Duke came out and she brought up the subject in her very Lexi way. “So, I used to live /here/?” she pointed up from the deck as Duke came out the door. “What was I? Broke? I mean…it’s nice and everything. It’s a little nautical.”

“Well I’m glad you like it,” Duke said, trying to decide if he was going to confront her or not. Once he decided, he smirked. “You owe me six months rent,” he joked.

Audrey laughed. That was so Duke. “I just tried to save your life. Shouldn’t I get the first month free?”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about what happened down in that basement,” Duke said, realizing that she had no intention of coming clean even though they were actually alone now. “You just stepped aside and let Tyler try to take me.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I just…I…I didn’t want to get stabbed. I was scared,” she lied, looking down at the floor and shifting nervously.

When she tried to walk away, Duke moved in front of her. “See, that’s where I get stuck,” he said, meeting her eyes for the first time and seeing Audrey there. “You jumped out of that barn. Went down in that basement. I guess I’m just having a hard time believing that you were scared.” He paused to give her a chance to say something but when she didn’t, he decided that he would have to be blunt. “I think you knew that my curse would kick in and save me.”

Audrey knew that she was probably caught, but she couldn’t just give up that easily. “I really wouldn’t know the first thing about it,” she said as she brushed by him to walk away, twirling her hair.

“But Audrey Parker would,” Duke called after her, seeing her steps falter like she was trying to make a decision. “Isn’t that right…Audrey.”

Audrey froze for a long moment, torn between admitting the truth and keeping up the act. She knew that it was a lost cause though. Duke could always see right through her and she would be lying if she said that she didn’t want /someone/ to know her. To understand. Someone to lean on through all this mess. “Damnit Duke,” she breathed out before spinning around and all but jumping into his arms with a tight hug. “Yeah. It’s me.” 

“Audrey,” he exhaled happily as he hugged her tightly. “You weren’t going to tell me?” he suddenly realized and pulled away to look at her with a hurt look on his face. 

“I just…needed some time. To get my head on straight and figure things out,” she told him. “I was never going to keep it from you forever.” 

Duke nodded in understanding. He could live with that. “Okay. I get that. I’ll give you some space for a few days to do that and then we can talk, yeah?” 

“Yeah, I’d appreciate that,” she smiled at him and pulled him into one more hug. “I /am/ glad you know though,” she whispered as he hugged her back. 

“Me too,” he huffed amusedly. “I guess I don’t have to worry about giving you the tour now,” he joked as he pulled back and tossed her keys which she expertly caught. 

“Thank you, Duke,” she said sincerely, knowing that he wouldn’t catch the full meaning. For seeing her when no one else could. For being there. For understanding that she needed a little space right now. For being so willing to be anything she needed all the time. For respecting her decisions no matter what. She had so much to thank him for. 

“You’re welcome,” he gave her a lop-sided smile. “Catch you later…Lexi.” 

She laughed and headed upstairs to make herself at home and didn’t see Duke all weekend. Not until Monday morning when he showed up at her door with two cups of coffee. She took one look at hers and raised an eyebrow. “Are you testing me?” she asked amusedly. “I don’t like milk.”

Duke held back a chuckle as he said, “It’s not milk. I know you’re Audrey.”

“Mmm. Baileys,” she sighed as she tried it. “I know you’re Duke.” 

Duke was more than a little surprised that she was actually drinking it. That was more than a little out of character, especially on a Monday morning when she would have to work. “Okay, let me ask you a question,” he decided. “You land in that field. You realize that if anyone figures out you’re Audrey they’ll kill Nathan, so you decide to pretend to be the person you were in the barn…Lexi?”

“I like it. It rhymes with sexy,” she joked.

“Yes it does,” Duke chucked, tapping his fingers on his coffee mug. “Here’s my question though. How do you…/do/ Lexi when you’re…really Audrey?”

“We’re gonna need a hell of a lot more than Baileys to answer that,” Audrey replied, taking another sip of her coffee.

“See, like that,” Duke said amusedly. “I mean…that’s a really Lexi thing to say.” He was kicking himself for taking a whole day to figure it out. He should have known right away. Granted they were pretty busy, him in particular trying to keep them all alive and then being possessed, but still. He should have known.

“I’m Audrey, alright? I really am. The same Audrey that helps people with troubles and the same Audrey who…went to Colorado with you,” she gave him a smile. That was one of her best memories. “But unlike Sarah or Lucy, I remember Lexi. You know…like a dream or…remembering some kind of fantasy of yourself.” The conversation was interrupted by Nathan driving up. “You /can’t/ tell him that I’m Audrey. He wants to end the troubles and he has that plan and he’s…” she trailed off and got up. “Just promise me that you won’t tell him.”

Duke looked at her incredulously even as he said, “I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“But…he’s gonna figure it out,” Duke pointed out, getting up and walking over to her as she put the dishes in the sink. As soon as Nathan opened his eyes and looked past his resentment, he would see it just as easily as Duke had.

“Why does he have to do that?” she asked pointedly. He hadn’t yet.

“Because when you care about somebody you can’t…they can’t…Look I’m just telling you he’s gonna figure it out. You need to stay away from him.”

“That’s kind of impossible. The guard wants us to work together. That was /your/ idea,” she pointed out. “Besides, Nathan doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” she added bitterly. 

“What do you…” Duke asked in shock, both at her words and the hatred behind them before realizing that they didn’t have time for this right now. “Look, for today you just keep him from figuring out that you’re Audrey and I’ll keep the guard from killing him,” Duke said. He really hated that stupid plan of his now, but what else could he have done. They would have killed Nathan on the spot otherwise. When he heard the knock on the door, he called out, “In here.”

Nathan came around the corner with a look at Duke before focusing on Audrey. “Hey…uh…Lexi. I brought coffee. I…don’t know what you like so um…”

“Spiked,” Audrey said, tapping her cup, the one that Duke had brought her. “I like it spiked.” In other circumstances she might have felt bad for shutting down his nice gesture so completely, but right now she didn’t really care. 

“Right. Yeah. At ten am,” Nathan said, trying and mostly succeeding at keeping the judgement out of his voice as he shot a dirty look at Duke who was leaning nonchalantly against the counter. His efforts to get Lexi out to help him on this case were avoided by both Lexi which he would have expected, but Duke throwing his lot in with her was not so expected. Still, they didn’t exactly leave him with a choice and he figured out why that afternoon when Lexi slipped and called Tatum, Tater. When she admitted that she was actually Audrey, he crossed the room in three strides and pulled her into a crushing hug. 

Nathan had just asked why she hadn’t told him when Duke burst back into the room to let them know that the guy was gone. “You knew,” he realized at the look on Duke’s face. 

“Okay we’ve got eight minutes to find Paul Krebbs,” Audrey tried to distract from this conversation.”

Nathan just kept staring at Duke though and Duke knew that he wasn’t going to get out of answering. “I figured it out,” he admitted quietly. 

“When?”

“The first day,” he said sheepishly. When Nathan started coming at him, he said, “Nathan, we don’t have time for this…”

“And you didn’t say anything to me?” Nathan accused. “After everything.”

“I was trying to keep you alive,” Duke snapped.

“I don’t want you to keep me alive. I want to end the troubles. You should want that too…”

“You’re right. I should,” Duke said heatedly before sighing. “Pisses me off that I don’t.” Once again, like the barn, it was Audrey’s choice and Duke didn’t want Nathan trying to take that away from her again. No matter the cost. 

Audrey just ignored them and walked out, leaving them to catch up. They needed to end this trouble. When Jordan confronted them and tried to get her to shoot Nathan, she lost enough hold on her temper to tell her, “And if it would actually work, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it, but it won’t and I’m not killing someone for nothing.” Of course, Jordan didn’t believe her and things got worse before they got better but they got the trouble stopped in the nick of time. Unfortunately, it led to Wade activating his curse. If Nathan hadn’t agreed to let Duke handle it, she would have stepped in, but thankfully she didn’t need to. 

She knew as she was going back to the station to finish up the paperwork that there was going to be a confrontation and she didn’t even have a ticking clock excuse to get out of it this time. Then again, getting it all out might just be good for her. Then she realized that the station probably wasn’t the best place. If someone heard too much then it would be a disaster. “I’m glad to have you back,” he told her. 

Audrey couldn’t help but snort derisively with a sarcastic, “of course,” muttered under her breath. 

“What do you mean?” Nathan asked worriedly. 

“Nothing,” she said dismissively. 

“Are you mad at me?” Nathan asked hesitantly. 

“We need to /not/ have this conversation here and now,” Audrey said coldly. “If you really want to fight this out, come by my apartment when we’re done.” 

It didn’t take long before the tension was too much for Audrey to take and she decided to leave the rest of the paperwork for tomorrow and she got up, grabbing her coat, and walked stiffly out the door. Nathan wasn’t long behind her, needing to get this worked out so that he could get her back. She was still unlocking her door even when he drove up and followed her upstairs. “Okay, can we talk now?” he asked hopefully once the door was closed behind them. 

“I made a decision to go into the barn and end the troubles, Nathan. And then you shot Agent Howard. You screwed it all up,” she tried to keep her cool. 

“Audrey…I couldn’t let you go,” he said earnestly. 

“Yeah. Exactly. And now you want me to kill you instead,” she said harshly. 

“I’m sorry. I made a deal with the guard,” Nathan tried to tell her. 

“They’re not going to find out who I am. This will never be their decision,” she snapped. 

“Well I thought maybe it was mine,” Nathan said hesitantly. 

“Yours?” Audrey scoffed. “Like me going into the barn was yours? Everything is just all about /you/ isn’t it.” Neither of them noticed the shadow at the door and the hand raised to knock before it apparently decided against it. 

“What do you…”

“You say you care about me. You say you love me. You don’t. If you did, you would spend at least a minute thinking about how the hell /I/ would feel with all /your/ decisions.”

“I do love you…”

“Bullshit,” Audrey snapped. “Going into that barn was /my/ choice. You had no /right/ to take it away from me. You never even considered how /I/ would feel for so many lives to be lost or ruined in the process. Just like you never considered how /I/ would be able to live with killing someone I loved in cold blood. /You/ didn’t want me to go so you took the choice out of my hands. /You/ want to assuage your guilt by dying for a cause so you’re trying to take that choice out of my hands too.” 

“Audrey, that’s not…”

“Everything you have done in this whole mess just reeks of selfishness. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and what you want and just looking at you makes me sick,” she sneered. 

“You don’t mean that,” Nathan reeled back like he’d been struck. 

“You killed an unarmed man in cold blood, Nathan. A man who was there to /help/ this town. A man who was just trying to /talk/ to you. And you killed him. Without a second thought. Do you even realize that?” she asked incredulously. 

“He was here to take you away,” Nathan tried to argue. 

“By my /choice/, Nathan!” she yelled. “You’re a cop. Would that defense even come close to flying in any court of law? No. It wouldn’t,” she answered her own question. “That, right there, was first degree murder. That /alone/ is enough for me to hate you, but that’s not even the worst of what you did.”

“What else did I do?” Nathan asked starting to feel sick himself as she picked apart his actions like that. 

“You killed our /son/ Nathan. When the barn imploded…he went with it. Our son is /dead/ because /you/ decided that my life was worth everything and everyone else. And now /I/ have to live with that too. Every trouble in this town. Every person that dies. Every life that’s ruined. All of it, is a constant reminder of /your/ selfishness. And I have to live with knowing that it’s all my fault.” 

“How is it your fault?” Nathan asked, swallowing heavily around the lump in his throat. He got it now. Why she was pissed. Why she hated him. And he couldn’t blame her a bit. But he could at least try and help her not blame herself. He owed her that much. 

“Because I encouraged it,” she snapped. “I saw how your feelings for me were bordering on obsession. I knew it was because I was the only person you could feel. And I didn’t shut it down from the start. Before I left, I kissed you. Because I wanted to give you that one good memory to hold on to while I was gone and then…If I hadn’t done that then maybe you wouldn’t have…”

“I would have,” Nathan cut her off. He didn’t really know one way or the other, but it was the only answer that would give her the peace of mind she deserved. “It wouldn’t have mattered what you did differently.” 

“Well we’ll never know, now will we? And we’ll never have peace again because you destroyed everything for your own selfish reasons. And now we all have to live with that. So yes, I /am/ mad at you Nathan. In fact, I despise you.”

“Then why would you save me?” he asked, hoping that she was just upset and exaggerating. 

“Because I’m not like you, Nathan. I won’t murder someone in cold blood. If it would work to get rid of the troubles, yeah. I’d do it. But I don’t love you. It won’t work. Which means that it would be for no other reason than revenge and that is a line that I won’t cross. And I won’t let anyone else kill you either because I don’t like what that would make me if I did. I am a cop, and that means something to me. It means protecting people even when I hate them.” 

“I…understand,” Nathan deflated, his last hope dashed. “I…I’m sorry you’re stuck working with me.”

“So am I,” Audrey told him. “But even if the guard didn’t demand it, I still intend to help people with their troubles. I’m not giving up my job…my entire purpose in life…just to avoid /you/. So we’re just going to have to deal with it.”

“Okay. I…I’ll try not to make things any harder on you,” Nathan nodded. “I’ll…let you keep being Lexi if you want and we can just have a…a cordial professional relationship.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Audrey agreed as she opened the door in a hint for him to leave and he did so without another word. 

Duke slipped down the stairs as he heard the conversation winding down and headed into the Gull to grab some booze. He waited until he saw Nathan drive away before he headed back up the stairs and knocked lightly on Audrey’s door. When she opened it he gave her a sympathetic look and held up two bottles. “Vodka or Whiskey?” 

“Both is good,” she said with a sniffle as she opened the door to let him in. “How much did you hear?” 

“A lot,” Duke said apologetically. “I saw your lights on and was coming up to finish our conversation from this morning when I heard the yelling and realized Nathan was here. I know I should have left, but…”

“No, it’s fine. I’m glad you heard. At least I don’t have to go through it all again,” Audrey told him as she sat down on the couch and took the bottle of vodka and turned it up. 

“I’m sorry, Audrey,” Duke sighed as he sat next to her. “You trusted me to handle him and I let you down.”

“No, Duke. You didn’t,” she sighed, leaning against his side like she always did when she was upset and just like always he wrapped a comforting arm around her. “You did your best. I saw it all.” 

“I didn’t do enough,” Duke said sadly. Just like he hadn’t done enough for his brother either. No matter how hard he tried it was never enough. 

“Duke, you put your own life on the line first to prevent Nathan from messing up the barn, then to save his life, then to come after me when the barn was imploding. Never think you didn’t do enough,” Audrey told him. 

“You remember that part? Me coming after you?” 

“You don’t?” Audrey asked confusedly. 

“No. I remember jumping in, yelling for you, then falling into a fish tank in Boston. That was it. Was there more?” 

“Yeah. You found me while I was looking for James. You offered to help me find him, but I couldn’t risk you dying too so when a crack started opening up under you, I shoved you through,” Audrey told him. 

“I’m sorry about James,” Duke said sadly. “Did you ever find him?” 

“No. It wasn’t long after I sent you away that I ended up being Lexi in that fake bar for I don’t even know how long. I didn’t even remember James at that point. Not until I got out and got my memories as Audrey back and by then it was too late,” she sighed. Duke tightened his arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder, gladly accepting his comfort. There was a long silence punctuated with plenty of drinking by both of them before Audrey asked, “Do you think I’m being too hard on Nathan?”

“That’s not a question I can answer for you, Audrey,” Duke shook his head. “You have a right to your feelings. Do /you/ think you’re being too hard on him?” 

“No…maybe…I don’t know. I’m just…I’m too close to this I think,” she sighed. “Help me get some perspective?” 

“Okay,” Duke nodded. “I can do that. Let’s start with…do you think that what he did was malicious?” 

“No. But does that matter? He knew what the cost would be. The troubles staying in Haven. He knew how many people had already died from them and that they wouldn’t stop hurting and killing people. He knew how many lives they were destroying.” 

“Yeah. He did,” Duke admitted. “But it’s not like I wasn’t tempted to do the same thing,” he had to point out. 

“You were tempted, but you didn’t,” she reminded him. “When push came to shove, you respected my decision and you put your own life on the line to defend it.” 

“And if you hadn’t decided to go in there…if you wanted to run…I wouldn’t have hesitated to take you to the Cape Rouge and taken you anywhere you wanted to go. Troubles or no troubles. What does that make me?”

“Someone who isn’t going to sacrifice someone else’s life for them,” Audrey told him. “Unlike Nathan who killed a man in cold blood to stop me.”

“And yet I’ve done just that. And /you/ were the one who asked me to do it,” Duke reminded her. 

“That was different,” Audrey shook her head. “That was to save dozens and even hundreds of lives. He was dying anyway. What you did just made that death count for something.”

“And did we have any more right to make that choice than Nathan did to make his?” Duke asked. 

Audrey thought about that for a long moment before deciding, “Yes. We did. Because our choices were to let him die for nothing and then hundreds more die as a result or to let his death save their lives. Nathan chose to sacrifice everything and disregard my choice about my own life just because /he/ didn’t want to lose me.” 

Duke couldn’t really argue with that so he just conceded the point and moved on. “So what is it exactly that you blame him for? The troubles? James? Howard?” 

Audrey sighed as she picked it all apart and she didn’t speak for a long time. Duke let her think it over, knowing that the massive quantities of alcohol they were drinking didn’t help the thought process though it did help her emotional state so it was something of a toss-up. Finally she decided, “All of it. The only one I could see letting go at all would be James, but even then…he knew that James was in the barn. He knew that James couldn’t survive outside the barn even if I /was/ able to get him out.” 

“That makes sense,” Duke had to admit. “But do you really think that all that was going through his head at the time or did he just make a desperate impulsive decision?” 

“We’re cops, Duke. We’re trained to think fast and consider the consequences before firing our weapon. He had plenty of time to think it over while I was saying my goodbyes. I tried to explain all that to him. Howard did. Even you did. He /chose/ not to listen. If he didn’t consider the consequences it was because he didn’t /want/ to consider them,” she reasoned. “Let me ask you something…Nathan thinks that you were considering killing Wesley when he was calling the alien mothership down on Haven. Were you?”

“The thought did cross my mind, yeah, but…” Duke trailed off, worried about what she would think of him. 

“But you didn’t. Because even with the way everything was falling down around us, you considered the consequences and only would have taken that step if you were left with no other choice. If even you can do that with as little time as we had and everything else going on, what excuse does a trained cop have?”

“While I do see your point, that’s not exactly a fair comparison,” Duke pointed out. “Think about my lifestyle. I always spent most of my time on the water where you have no choice but to learn to think fast and consider the consequences of everything you do because one mistake can mean death and there’s no one else out there who can save you. I probably have a lot more skill in that area than any cop ever could.” 

“Okay, you’re right about the comparison,” she admitted. “But you agree that he has no excuse for not considering the consequences though right?” 

“Yeah. That I can agree to,” Duke said reluctantly. He was feeling like an awful friend by doing so, but he couldn’t argue with the facts. He felt the need to know how far she was taking this though, so he asked, “So, do you think he deserves to die?” Just because she wouldn’t let the guard or anyone else kill him didn’t mean that she didn’t think that he deserved it. 

“I’m not a judge or a jury. It’s not my place to say whether anyone deserves death,” Audrey shook her head. 

He caught what she didn’t say there and that worried him quite a bit. He shifted so that he was facing her and told her, “Audrey, look at me.” When she did he said seriously, “I know that you’re mad at him and you have every right to be. And I know that you hate him right now, and that’s okay. But I’ve seen what this kind of anger and hatred and bitterness can do to someone if they can’t let it go and I don’t want to see you fall down that hole.” 

Audrey closed her eyes and forced herself to think about his words, swallowing around the lump in her throat as she admitted, “I know. I just…I can’t. Not yet.” 

“And that’s okay. For a while. Just…not too long, okay?” He asked hopefully. 

“Not too long,” she agreed. “If I can’t though…will you…” she wasn’t quite sure how to put her request, but he got it anyway. 

“I’ll do whatever I need to do to help you, Audrey. In this or anything else. You know that,” he said softly. 

Just like in Colorado, Audrey felt the overwhelming urge to kiss him right now, but unlike then, she managed to hold herself back. Between the way he’d pushed her away then and knowing that if she faced the fact that she was in love with him then it would put his head on a chopping block, not even the copious amounts of alcohol could make her go there. Instead she just hugged him and said a sincere, “Thank you.” 

He hugged her back, shifting back to their previous position with her leaning against his side as he whispered, “Always.” It was only minutes after that when he realized that she had passed out and he couldn’t help but chuckle. He pulled her legs over his lap so that he could pick her up and carry her to bed. He tucked her in and brushed her hair back from her face with a smile before going to put up what was left of the two bottles that they’d almost polished off and then setting a large glass of water and asprin on her nightstand. He debated with himself for a moment before turning her alarm on. She could always turn it back off if she wasn’t up to it, after all. Once she was settled, he slipped out the door, making sure to lock both locks behind him, and headed back to the Cape Rouge, only slightly unsteady on his feet. He’d drank about as much as she had, but he was a lot bigger than she was so he could handle it better. 

The next morning, Audrey barely resisted the urge to throw her alarm clock at the wall, and almost went back to sleep, but her headache wouldn’t let her so she gave in and opened her eyes, regretting that really quick, but at least it gave her a chance to see the water and asprin on the opposite side of her nightstand from the alarm clock. She tabled her confusion for the moment in favor of slowly sitting up and taking the asprin before chugging the whole glass of water. Once that was done, she laid back down and waited for it to kick in as she tried to piece together the memories from last night. She didn’t remember going to bed. 

The last thing she remembered was talking to Duke. She must have passed out on him. Which meant that he put her to bed and left the water and asprin out and apparently set her alarm too. She would have to remember to thank him. She spent the next half hour remembering their conversation in snippets until she had the whole thing pieced together before she finally dragged herself out of bed. She took a long shower and rushed through the rest of her morning routine, downing another full glass of water for the dehydration before pouring herself a cup of coffee to go. 

By the time she got to the station, she barely felt human and she plopped down at her desk with a warning to Nathan, “I’m very much hungover right now, so if we can keep the noise to a minimum that would be appreciated.” 

Nathan just nodded, despite the fact that she wasn’t looking at him. His silence would be agreement enough. He did think that she was laying the Lexi persona on a little thick, but refrained from saying so. It ended up being a particularly slow day, thankfully, and it was mostly spent slogging through the backlog of paperwork. 

Normally Audrey hated those days but today she was more than grateful for it. Thankfully, by lunchtime, her hangover had faded enough that she was able to eat, which was a good thing since she hadn’t had dinner last night and barely snacked for lunch what with the whole trouble drama. Eating made her feel almost human again so the afternoon went much better than the morning. She still didn’t tell Nathan he could speak again though, not really wanting to hear what he had to say and she was very aware of his eyes on her regularly, so she knew he wanted to say something. 

Audrey went to the Gull for dinner, but passed on the alcohol this time, and she had just gotten her food when Duke plopped down across from her with an amused, “How was your day?”

She gave him a half-hearted glare and said, “If you’re really my friend, you will never let me drink that much again.” 

Duke laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, sorry. Not that kind of friend,” he joked pulling a laugh from Audrey too. 

“So, you won’t talk me out of my bad decisions you’ll just help me through them,” she quipped amusedly. “Thanks for the water and asprin.”

“Anytime,” he grinned. “But seriously, aside from the hangover…how /was/ your day?”

“Well the hangover kept Nathan from talking to me like, at all, and it was very slow at the station, so…as well as could be expected?” 

“Good. Slow days are a rare treasure around here,” Duke chuckled. 

“You’re telling me,” she huffed a laugh. “Oh, I didn’t even think to ask last night…how’s Wade?” She suddenly felt like a crappy friend. There Duke was talking her through all her problems while he was dealing with the mess with his brother and she just completely ignored it. 

“Still dodging me,” Duke sighed. 

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, just say the word,” Audrey told him. 

“I appreciate it, but I got it covered. Just gotta track him down first,” Duke told her. “Speaking of…I should probably get back to that.” He had stopped in to see if Wade was here and noticed Audrey so came over to chat for a bit. 

“Okay. Good luck,” she told him as he walked off. 

Over the next couple trouble free days, Audrey calmed down quite a bit around Nathan. They still weren’t friends again and probably never would be, but she wasn’t nearly as antagonistic and that was as good as it was going to get for a while. Nathan had started treating her more like Lexi, which she appreciated. Not only did it help keep her cover, but it also made her a stranger to him. He continued doing small nice things for her, like leaving coffee or pastries on her desk in the mornings, but otherwise let her keep her distance. 

Audrey hadn’t seen much of Duke over those few days and figured he was dealing with the issue with his brother so didn’t go looking for him. The trouble-free days didn’t last very long though and by Friday there was a new one when Freddie died of some sort of bear attack or something in his locked jail cell when Duke dropped him off to sleep it off. It didn’t take long to figure out that it wasn’t safe to sleep and they ended up working through the night and most of Saturday before they got it handled so by the time Audrey finally went to bed that night she was exhausted. She was just glad that she got Sunday off before they got another trouble early Monday morning, called in by Duke of all people who had rescued Vince and Dave. 

Audrey was more than a little taken aback at Duke’s attitude when they got to the docks, first when he tried to avoid them and then when he lost it at Nathan. Not that him yelling at Nathan bothered her of course, but it worried her because it wasn’t like Duke. Sure he and Nathan tended to fight like cats and dogs more often than not, but not for no reason like that. Unfortunately she was too wrapped up in the trouble to really dig, not that it would do much good with Duke anyway. The man could keep a secret like nobody else. 

It was mid-afternoon when she finally figured it out. Duke punched Nathan, split his lip, and got blood on his hand, but nothing happened. By the time it dawned on her he was already speeding off and she felt her heart break for him. She should have pushed her way in when he said he didn’t need help. She should have tried harder. Now he was having to deal with killing his own brother. No wonder he was so upset. As soon as they got the trouble handled, she didn’t even go back to the station to deal with the paperwork. It could wait. She went straight to the Cape Rouge, finding Duke sitting on the couch in his stateroom with his head in his hands. She went over and sat next to him, putting a comforting hand on his arm. “You want to talk about it?” she asked gently. 

“Jennifer isn’t coming back. I can’t really blame her. I was a jerk,” he sighed.

“Yeah, you kinda were. But you had good reason,” she told him. “She should understand that. Or…does she know?” 

“She was here when it happened. He was going after her. I…I didn’t have a choice…”

“I know you didn’t,” Audrey said softly as she rubbed his back soothingly. “Did she say why she wasn’t coming back?”

“Vince and Dave offered her a room,” Duke told her. “Said there were too many bad memories here.”

“So it’s not that she doesn’t forgive you for being a jerk. She just doesn’t want to live somewhere that she watched someone die. That’s a pretty reasonable reaction from normal people,” she chuckled giving him a playful bump. 

Duke snorted amusedly. “It’s easy to forget what normal people are actually like,” he admitted. 

“I know that I don’t know Jennifer very well, but I don’t think she would abandon her friend over something like this. Especially after he saved her life,” Audrey assured him. “Just give her a little time to get past it.” She hoped he got the hint that he needed to get past it too. 

“You know…I get your thing with Nathan a little better now,” Duke admitted. “If he had just let you go, then Wade would be…and even Jack and Aiden wouldn’t have their trouble…and how the hell are troubles cropping up in families that never had them before all of a sudden…” he rambled. 

“I don’t know. But it’s getting worse. Maybe because the twenty-seven year cycle was interrupted. They always steadily got worse until the barn left from what I can tell, so now they just didn’t stop,” she shrugged. “Just remember…it’s okay to be mad, but not for too long.”

“I’ll be okay,” Duke sighed, finally sitting up to look at her. “You know me. I always land on my feet.” 

“I know,” she said softly. “But that doesn’t mean that you can’t hurt too.” 

“I’m handling it,” he assured her. 

Of course, he was. She’d never known anyone as strong as Duke. There was nothing that he couldn’t handle. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try to help. “Just know if you need /anything/ I’m here.”

Duke huffed derisively. “All I need is the same thing the rest of the town needs. An end to the damn troubles.” 

Just like that it hit her. How selfish she was being. She was no better than Nathan. He refused to respect her choice in the barn and here she was refusing to even /give/ Duke the choice. What she wanted here didn’t matter. It never had. “If it were possible…would you be willing to give up your life for it?” she asked in almost a whisper. 

“What, to end the troubles? Absolutely. Without a second thought,” he rolled his eyes as he turned to look at her. When he saw the tears in hers, he paused and wondered, “Why do you ask?” 

“Be-Because I…I love you, Duke,” she admitted. “I know you don’t feel the same way and that’s not really necessary, but…if you really want to do this…I’ll respect your choice. But only if you’re really absolutely sure,” she babbled. 

It was a long moment before Duke actually registered anything beyond that first sentence as he tried to wrap his mind around that. “Hold on…why would you think I don’t feel the same way?” he asked confused. 

“Because of Colorado. I could tell you didn’t want…I mean, your heart wasn’t really in it, so…”

“Audrey,” he said pulling her around to look at him. “My heart wasn’t in it because you were drunk. I didn’t want to take advantage of you. When you didn’t bring it up after, other than that cryptic goodbye, I figured you just came to your senses.” 

“Wh-what are you saying?” she asked, furrowing her brow in confusion. 

“I’m saying…that I love you, Audrey. I always have,” he whispered before leaning down for a long slow kiss before he remembered what started this conversation in the first place and he pulled back. “And yes. I will absolutely sacrifice myself to end the troubles. But…Can we just have a day first? Twenty-four hours to just love each other and forget the rest of the world. And then I can die happy.” 

“Yeah,” Audrey nodded as tears filled her eyes. “You can have anything you want. I’ll even call out of work tomorrow so it’s just for us. We can even do nothing but stay in bed all day if that’s what you want.” 

“Well I don’t know about /all/ day, but it definitely sounds like a good idea now,” he said hopefully. She answered him with a passionate kiss which prompted him to pick her up and carry her to the bedroom where they made love, slow and sweet, long into the night. Instead of sleeping after, neither of them wanted to waste a second of their perfect day, they got up and went to the galley, not bothering to put any clothes on, where Duke made them a midnight snack that they went back to eat in bed before just laying together in each other’s arms. 

They spent the rest of the night cuddling and talking about anything and everything before Duke got up and threw some shorts on, giving her one of his long shirts, and pulled them up to the deck to watch his last sunrise, curled up together on the futon with steaming mugs of coffee. They both did their best to forget what was coming that night. Once the sun was fully up, they returned to the kitchen for breakfast that they also ate on the deck before heading back inside as Audrey called out of work, pretending to be sick. Neither of them wanted to be interrupted if they were spotted, so they spent the day inside, curled up in bed and just enjoying each other’s presence. 

They didn’t step outside again until the sun was going down, Duke didn’t want to miss his last sunset any more than he did his last sunrise and as they sat there holding each other, watching the sun go down, it was time to get around to the subject they’d been avoiding all day. “I’m sure it goes without saying, but…I want a burial at sea,” he told her. “You can invite other people along if you need the support, but I don’t need anybody there but you. I mean, you’ll have to get someone to pilot the Rouge out there and back, but other than that, it’s up to you.” 

“Okay,” she nodded, feeling the tears spring to her eyes now that the subject was brought up again and she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t going to happen anymore and she buried her face in his neck. 

“I’m sorry, Audrey,” he sighed sadly, kissing her head and rubbing her back. 

“I should be the one saying that,” she sniffled. 

“No, I have the easy job. You’re the one who has to move on,” he pointed out. 

Audrey declined to say anything to that. She wasn’t going to tell him that she wasn’t going to. She was going to get him taken care of and then she was going to follow him. She could never live with what she was going to have to do here so there was no point in trying. She was always going to have to sacrifice herself to end the troubles. She just wished that she didn’t have to sacrifice Duke too. She changed the subject so that he wouldn’t notice her lack of response. “Do you have a will or…what do you want done with the Rouge and the Gull…or anything else…”

“The combination to my safe is eleven nine sixteen. The papers for both the Rouge and the Gull are in there. I signed them over to you while you were in the bathroom earlier. You can keep them or sell them or whatever you want, along with anything else I have,” he told her, holding her close as her tears fell harder and faster as the last light of the day fell beyond the horizon. 

“I don’t want to do this,” she cried as she pulled back to look at him. “If you change your mind…”

Duke reached out and wiped her tears away with his thumb, “I can’t do that,” he whispered. “This town /needs/ the troubles to go away. We can’t go on like this.” 

“I know,” she sniffled, leaning her cheek against his hand. 

“Come on. Let’s go back to bed for a little while first, yeah?” he asked, wanting to be with her one last time. When she nodded, he picked her up and carried her to the bed, taking his time to savor every moment just as much as she was and when they were done, he asked, “Wait until I go to sleep?” It wasn’t just that he wanted to die peacefully like that, though he did. Mostly he just didn’t want her to have to watch the life fade from his eyes. She didn’t want her to live with the same nightmare that he did of his brother’s eyes. 

“Like I would deny you anything,” she gave a watery chuckle as she leaned over him, trailing her hand over his chest and stomach. 

He reached his hand to her cheek, brushing her hair back and wiping the new stream of tears. “Loving you has been the best part of my life, Audrey Parker. This last day with you has been everything I could ever have dreamed of. Who else gets such a perfect sendoff, huh?” 

“You’ll always be the best part of my life too,” she whispered as she lay down at his side. “I’ll love you for as long as I exist.” 

He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. “You know, I never put much stock in the idea of a heaven, but…if there is one…assuming I get in…I’ll see you there,” he said as he drifted off to sleep. Another reason he hadn’t wanted to sleep last night. Being up for two days straight made it easy to fall asleep. 

Audrey lay there for a long while, trying to get up the nerve to do what she needed to do, but finally she managed to steel herself and sat up, reaching over to grab her gun. It took a few minutes to get her hands to stop shaking enough to keep a clean aim directly at his heart. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, she heard voices. “Duke! Are you here?” Dave called frantically. 

Audrey reached down and grabbed the sheet that had pooled around her waist and pulled it up with the hand that wasn’t holding the gun just as Vince said, “We need to find Lexi…it’s important…” They both stopped in the doorway as their eyes went wide at the sight they’d walked in on. “Lexi? What are you doing?” Vince asked in shock. 

“I’m not Lexi. I’m Audrey. And I’m ending the troubles,” she said shakily. 

“Yes, and if you don’t mind, I really wanted to do this while I was asleep, so,” Duke waved his hands in a go away gesture. 

“No, you can’t,” Dave said urgently. “That’s what we were coming to tell you.”

“We can’t what?” Duke asked impatiently propping himself up on his elbows to glare at them. 

“Things have changed. There are harbingers…warnings…they said, ‘what was once your salvation is now your doom’.” 

“What does that mean?” Audrey asked hopefully. 

“It means that if you kill the one you love we’re all doomed,” Dave told her. 

“Oh thank god,” Audrey breathed out, all but throwing her gun back on the nightstand and tackling Duke back to the bed with a kiss. 

“Why are you still here?” Duke asked impatiently when he noticed Vince and Dave just shifting uncomfortably in the doorway. 

“We really need to figure out all this and how it relates to the barn and Audrey and…”

“And we can do that tomorrow,” Audrey told them. “Afternoon,” she added. 

“Yeah…okay…we’ll just be…figuring out what we can,” Dave decided, pulling a protesting Vince back outside. 

As soon as they were alone again, Duke pulled Audrey back into another kiss, rolling them over, and as slow and sweet and loving as their previous encounters were, this one was the opposite. It was fast and rough and frantic. An affirmation of life rather than a goodbye. They didn’t celebrate for long though as their lack of sleep caught up to them and soon after they were finished, they were fast asleep in each other’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't think of another way to end the troubles at this point that I haven't done already in other stories so feel free to pick any of those ways or imagine your own lol.


End file.
